Book Collector's Musings Poem by Frank Avon

All I did was read a lot -
or maybe not

but look at my books
and bid my looks

not betray
my miserly ways.

They'll live, I trust,
after I am dust;

their words will last,
a living link to the past,

and to the one
who would have been undone

if he could not have them
and carefully shelve them

in his library, and enter them
in his catalog for the interim.

Then one of these days
when Time has its way,

may they survive,
for while they're alive

I too shall live,
and through their pages give

my message
and my blessings

to those I love even more than these
I could not leave.